Ms. Hen reviews Dracula

Ms. Hen prepares for Halloween

Dracula

Bram Stoker

Archibald Constable and Company

1898

Ms. Hen has read DRACULA before, but she has not yet reviewed it on her blog. You may know if you are a regular reader that she loves Halloween and reading spooky books during this time of year, so it might not be a surprise that she loves DRACULA. Ms. Hen is running out of Halloween books to read, however; the list of scary books she has read is getting larger, but she likes to reread her favorites sometimes, such as the classics.

DRACULA is the story of Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Professor Van Helsing, and a group of others who hunt down Count Dracula after their friend Lucy dies by his hand. The Count pops up in this novel unexpectedly; he is a frightful character. DRACULA begins with Jonathan Harker’s journal while he is staying in Dracula’s castle. He writes that he is terrified and he does not know what is happening. This experience scars him, and he develops an illness over it. He travels back to England with Mina, who joins him while he is in the hospital, and they find a team to deal with the vampire. This book is scary, and when Ms. Hen read it this time, she did not remember what happened at the end, and she was grateful for that.

The first time Ms. Hen read DRACULA, she was jarred by the structure of the novel. It is told in journals and letters and some telegrams from different characters’ points of view in the story. When she read this before, it was hard to follow who was narrating, but this time when she read it, this aspect didn’t bother her as much. She found that it didn’t matter if she knew who was talking, it only mattered that she knew what was going on. She found the novel very long this time. She didn’t remember it being so long before. Not that it was boring, but she found that she wasn’t doing much else other than reading it, working, eating, and going about the things she has to do as a hen in the world.

One aspect that Ms. Hen admired about the writing of DRACULA is the element of suspense. Mr. Stoker has an innate sense of timing, and he injects exciting parts into the storyline right when the reader needs them. Most of the novel is quiet, and there is a lot of hunting for the count, but the places where the count appears and when blood and death rear their heads are well written and perfectly spaced out. Ms. Hen applauds an author who knows the right moment to frighten the audience.

Ms. Hen loves DRACULA. She does not dream of being a vampire anymore; those days are done for her. She likes the daylight and does not like the sight of blood. But she knows that they are out there, lurking in the dark, under the moon during the Halloween season.

The Stinking Rose, San Francisco. Dracula would hate this place

Ms. Hen reviews Pride and Prometheus

Pride and Prometheus

John Kessel

Saga Press

2018

Ms. Hen read about this novel earlier in the year, and she was intrigued by the premise. It’s a mash-up between PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and FRANKENSTEIN, which happen to be two of Ms. Hen’s favorite books. Both were published in the same year, 1818, two hundred years ago, and were written by women, but are rarely talked about together, because they are worlds apart. Ms. Hen thought this book would be ideal to add to her Halloween reading this year, so she read it, and became engrossed in the story.

The first thing Ms. Hen noticed about PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS is that the writing style is similar to the styles of both Austen and Shelley. Ms. Hen was amazed that the author captures the voice of both authors. In some reviews Ms. Hen has read, people have written that the writing style could turn a lot of readers off, but it didn’t for Ms. Hen. She’s used to reading books like these, so she felt comfortable with the voice.

The novel centers on both Mary Bennett, the second youngest sister in the Bennett family, sister of Elizabeth, the protagonist of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and Victor Frankenstein. This novel takes place about ten years after PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and during the timeframe of FRANKENSTEIN, when Victor spends time in England. Victor and Mary meet at a ball in London, and she is intrigued with his sadness over his brother’s death. He is interested in the fact that she has knowledge of natural history and fossils.

The two meet again when Mary is visiting Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy invites Victor and his friend Henry to stay with them for a few nights. Victor tells Mary about the monster in the middle of the night in her room, which she thinks is inappropriate, but she listens with keen interest. Victor tells her that the monster wishes for him to make him a bride, but Victor does not want to do that because he does not want to bring more evil into the world. Mary is afraid, and she is not sure she should believe him, but afterwards, she meets the monster, and is afraid.

This novel took many twists and turns and it did not turn out the way Ms. Hen expected. Mary is the central character, and her thread runs throughout the whole novel. Even though Mary is the protagonist, it is mostly about FRANKENSTEIN, which Ms. Hen understands. This novel is about love and trying to find love, and failing at finding love in many different ways. When Ms. Hen reads FRANKENSTEIN, she feels sorry for the monster, because he is a tragic creature. She doesn’t understand why Victor doesn’t feel sorry for his creation in this tale. The monster is pathetic, and all he wants is someone to be with, who is like him, and will understand him. Victor tries to help, against his own inclinations, but things don’t end the way anyone would imagine.

Ms. Hen thinks this is a perfect Halloween novel. She would recommend it to anyone who loves Austen and Shelley, and would like to read a novel based on two of the most influential (women) writers of the nineteenth century.

Ms. Hen reviews Rabbit Cake

Rabbit Cake

Annie Hartnett

Tin House Books

2017

Ms. Hen bought this book at the City Lights Bookstore while she was on vacation in San Francisco, because she thought she should buy a book to support it, and she had heard of this novel, and wanted to read it, but hadn’t gotten around to it. She happened to see it at the bookstore, so she grabbed it.

This novel is about an eleven-year old girl named Elvis, whose mother dies, and she has a hard time handling it. Her mother was a scientist, and highly intelligent, and she didn’t fit into the small Alabama town where the family lived. Elvis thinks her mother’s death might have been a suicide, or she may have had a brain tumor, but there is no evidence. Elvis’ sister, Lizzie, is a sleepwalker like their mother, and she ends up in a psychiatric hospital because Elvis and their father can’t handle her at night when she eats and walks around. Elvis talks to the school guidance councilor to help her with her grieving and her sister's illness.

One thing that Ms. Hen likes about this novel is that it’s full of animals, and animal facts. The mother studied biology. She was working on what the family called “The Book” which was about the sleeping habits of animals. Elvis tries to finish the book after her mother dies. The mother baked rabbit cakes for all occasions, birthdays, the new moon, the solstices. Lizzie becomes obsessed with baking rabbit cakes and wants to hold the Guinness World record for most rabbit cakes ever baked.

One reason Ms. Hen did not like this novel was that she did not think that Elvis is a realistic eleven-year old girl. She seems too mature and sophisticated to be a preteen. Ms. Hen knows there are some children who are intelligent and have a good head on their shoulders, but she knows that most don’t. Ms. Hen has never known a child like this one, and she was not like her. She also thinks that Elvis deals with her mother’s death too easily; if she were a child who lost her mother, she would have been more unstable and she would have lived in fantasies more.

Even though she didn’t think Elvis was realistic, Ms, Hen was happy that there were hens in this novel. Lizzie sleepwalks and ends up in the neighbor’s chicken coop, “I found Lizzie in their chicken coop, the hens huddled in the far corner, squawking in alarm.” Lizzie eats the eggs raw from the chicken coop, which Ms. Hen thinks is disgusting, but Lizzie is not in her right mind. Ms. Hen understands that sleepwalking can be a dangerous thing, and she glad that neither she nor anyone she knows well has that problem.

Ms. Hen thinks that this is not the worst novel she has read, but it’s not the best. If a reader can get past the fact that the protagonist is not quite realistic, then that person would like this novel. It can be charming and cute, but despondent at the same time. Not everything in life is perfect, and Ms. Hen knows this.

Ms. Hen reviews Now is the Time to Open Your Heart

Ms. Hen at Muir Woods

Now is the Time to Open Your Heart

Alice Walker

Ballentine Books

2005

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because Alice Walker is considered a Northern California writer, even though she is originally from the South. Ms. Hen wanted to read a woman writer from the area, so she chose this book. She didn’t get around to reading it until she returned from her vacation to San Francisco, however.

Ms. Hen wanted to like this novel. It’s about a woman, Kate Talkingtree, and her spiritual journey: she decides to go down the Colorado River with a group of women trying to find themselves, then she goes to Brazil deep in the Amazon to drink ayahuasca. She tries to find the meaning of her own life, but she gets involved in listening to other people’s problems. Her partner, Yolo, goes on vacation to Hawaii, and has his own transcendent experience.

Ms. Hen thought this story was bland. By the end of the novel, she was bored with the characters, and didn't think they know anything about the real world. They’re too involved with their issues and their own problems, and they have excess time to ponder their lives. Ms. Hen admires people who would attempt to go on spiritual journeys, but she thinks they should be realistic, because she doesn’t believe in magic or weird things. She would like it if there could be magic, but she has spend too much time in their real world, dealing with the tedium of everyday life, to know that there is little magic in the world. People who believe in fairies and the dream that there is a cure-all for everything need a wakeup call.

The one aspect that Ms. Hen liked about this novel was the description of the process of ayahuasca. She has heard of this, but it’s difficult to imagine if a person hasn’t experienced it. This is the only novel Ms. Hen has read that talks about the drug. Ayahuasca is a drink that makes a person have a spiritual experience; it’s a hallucinogenic, but it’s therapeutic at the same time. Ms. Hen has decided that she doesn’t need this, but she thinks it’s fascinating that people do, and pay a shaman in Brazil to take drugs to help them have a journey.

Ms. Hen didn’t like this book. She feels badly because she knows Alice Walker is one of the great American writers. But she still doesn’t recommend it. Some writers just write bad books, or books that not everyone enjoys.

Ms. Hen reviews San Francisco

San Francisco, California

Ms. Hen and The Golden Gate Bridge

Ms. Hen recently went on a vacation to San Francisco. She doesn’t travel as often as she would like, but she tries to go on a trip once a year to a place she’s never been. She chose San Francisco this time because she’s heard it’s a beautiful city, and she had never been to California. She had the idea that it would be similar to Boston, but on the West coast.

Ms. Hen had some downtime at work before her trip, so she investigated the map of San Francisco to find cool things to visit. For her first day, she went on a meandering journey around Chinatown and North Beach, which were within walking distance of her hotel. She went on a mission to find the first Buddhist temple in the United States, the Tin How Temple. She found it, but got there a half hour before it opened, so she killed some time in a Chinese bakery and drank an iced tea and ate a bean roll. She thought being in that bakery was not that different from being at home, since the suburb where she lives has one of the highest Asian populations in Boston. She went to the temple, and it was charming; the morning light shone through and she observed bowls of fruit and incense sticks readying for the day of prayer. Photos are not allowed at this temple, which Ms. Hen understood. Red cards hang from the ceiling, which are prayers made during the New Year for the rest of the year.

After the temple Ms. Hen went on a hunt for the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, which was the first fortune cookie factory in the United States. Her map did not direct her in the right place, but she found it in a small alley. The factory was open and women were pressing cookies into machines. Someone handed her a sample of a fresh cookie that was flat like a quarter. It was delicious! There were cookies for sale, and T-shirts, but Ms. Hen didn’t buy any cookies because she thought she would have a hard time carrying them home.

A festival was happening in Chinatown the day Ms. Hen was there. She doesn’t like crowds, especially when she is traveling, because she feels like a target when she doesn’t know where she’s going. She found her way to the famous City Lights Bookstore, which was started by Lawrence Ferlingetti, the Beat poet. She wandered through the bookstore, and bought a book and a T-shirt.

After her visit to the bookstore, Ms. Hen went to the Beat Museum, which is a museum dedicated to the Beat writers of the 50s and 60s era. Ms. Hen liked the museum, and spent time watching the film inside, but you can read her review of BIG SUR to find out her conclusion about the Beat writers and their lack of female involvement.

Ms. Hen did a lot in one day. After her tourist adventures, she had lunch at The Stinking Rose, a restaurant that serves everything with garlic. She had barbecue chicken pizza, because as a hen, she loves chicken, and it was a big pizza, but she left some crust on the plate. Ms. Hen loved the restaurant and the food, but she ate a lot! But she was on vacation, so she allowed herself that.

Ms. Hen at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park

On the Tuesday Ms. Hen was there, she decided to go to two art museums, the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. She decided to take the Muni light rail, and had a difficult time knowing her location on the train. There were no announcements, and no signs outside at the station. She discovered she could look at her phone, and it told her where she was. She got off the train and went to Golden Gate Park, where the de Young museum is located. She stepped into the Japanese Tea Garden first, which was lovely and peaceful. It contains a café, but Ms. Hen didn’t want any tea at that time, but she sat down and looked at the pond. The de Young Museum is beautiful and had an exhibit about war propaganda, and also a lot of Mayan and Incan artifacts. She walked a long way to get to the Legion of Honor. Ms. Hen thought that was beautiful, but by the time she got there, she was hungry and needed caffeine. She had a surprisingly delicious salad with chicken in the restaurant. The Legion of Honor has a large collection of Rodin. Ms. Hen didn’t feel like dealing with the public transportation going back to the hotel, so she took an Uber, which she does not usually do.

The Thinker by Rodin in front of the Legion of Honor Museum

There are a lot of homeless people in San Francisco. One of the tour guides on a tour she went on said there are 10,000 homeless in the city. To Ms. Hen, they seemed more unstable than the ones she sees in Boston. It made her sad to see so many people like that, but she knows she can’t help everyone. A person who knows about traveling told Ms. Hen that some homeless people move there because of the nice weather.

Ms. Hen rode the cable car from Powell Street to Fisherman’s Wharf to go to the tourist area to buy souvenirs and see the sea lions on Pier 39. She thought they were cute! She was not impressed with Pier 39, because she though it was just like Quincy Market in Boston, a big tourist trap. She had salmon for lunch at Ciopinno's that was scrumptious.

Ms. Hen with Alcatraz in the background at Fisherman's Wharf

Ms. Hen spent six nights in San Francisco. She felt safe in the city by herself, even though she stayed downtown, which is not the best area. She thinks it is similar to Boston in the way that it’s crowded and full of tourists, and there are lots of things to see. She’s happy she went because she thought the city was fantastic. She loves to see different parts of the world, and is not afraid to go by herself. Some people don’t understand why she does this, but she thinks she has to travel to prove that she can survive in the wide world, and come back safely.